Back in the Saddle

Finally, finally, finally, my next novel is under way. All that messy “real life” stuff has settled down — new work working well, summer vacations vacated, kid accepted into acceptable school for first grade, the usual.

I finally finished the prep work on the book I’m tentatively calling Dorian: Book One of the Brel Chronicles, and I’ve managed to crank out 5,500 words (3 chapters) of first-draft text in the past five days. The writing is flowing well. My detailed outline that I spent so much time crafting is proving its worth. Everything is still subject to change, of course. As I write, I’m still learning and discovering more and more about this world and these characters.

One fairly exciting event related to this book happened a couple weeks ago. A friend of mine on Facebook (whom I had never met in “real life”) posted a photo of a painting she’d just finished. I instantly fell in love with it because it was the very image I’d seen in my head for many years of what the sky on the planet of Brel looks like. I asked her if I could buy it and eventually use it as the cover art for this novel, and she agreed. So I drove from Atlanta to St. Louis to pick it up, and to finally meet the artist in person. Now, I have it here, and it’s inspiring me as I write.

So, all this makes me very happy. It’s wonderful to be actually writing again. Granted, these 5,500 words are maybe 5% of what the final size of the manuscript will be. I think it will run slightly over 100K words, possibly even longer as this story is very large and has lots of complexity. That’s actually the biggest struggle (although it doesn’t feel like a struggle) with this story — NOT throwing in everything I could possibly say about it. I think this is common for books where the author has spent a long time building the world and developing a panoramic backstory. I literally started inventing (transcribing?) this world / story when I was a teenager, many moons ago.

Bottom line, I’m thrilled to be writing again, and I’m very pleased with my progress so far. The story feels exciting to me. I’m anxious / eager to find out what happens with all these characters.